E79 Gold: Mountain Home Copper–Gold, NT— High-Grade Rock Chips Expand Prospective Footprint - Test a potential new Copper-Gold Mineral System.
- Noel Ong
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Announcement
E79 Gold Mines Limited (ASX: E79) has sharpened the Mountain Home Copper–Gold (Figure 1) story in the NT with a simple but telling update (23 October 2025): fresh mapping plus 24 rock-chip samples have pushed high-grade copper outside the known gossan and onto parallel trends. With assays up to 35.9% Cu and Cu-Au-Bi mineralisation tracking along sinistral brittle faults, the footprint now looks more like a structural corridor than a single showing.
Access has been secured, heritage fieldwork is done with approvals expected in the December quarter, and a co-funded airborne gravity survey over ~350 km² is booked for December—setting the stage to convert surface vectors into 2026 drill targets. In short, it’s scale plus structure, and the next datasets should tell us how big this system might be or not.
Figure 1: Location map of the Mountain Home Project within the McArthur and Carpentaria Basins. (source: E79)
Highlights - Finding a new Copper-Gold Mineral System
Reconnaissance mapping and 24 rock-chip samples returned multiple high-grade copper assays, extending mineralisation around the Mountain Home Gossan. Key results include:
MHR040: 35.9% Cu, MHR037: 32.5% Cu, MHR039: 18.55% Cu (gossan area).
Step-outs recording MHR036: 24.3% Cu & 0.11 g/t Au (≈200 m south), MHR038: 22.5% Cu & 1.56 g/t Au (parallel trend ≈150–200 m west), MHR049: 2.53% Cu (parallel trend ≈950 m north).
Access agreement signed with the local pastoralist; heritage survey fieldwork completed with approvals expected in December quarter 2025, enabling initial drilling in 2026 post-wet season.
Co-funded airborne gravity survey over ~350 km² scheduled to commence December 2025 (NT Government GDC support, up to $150k). Separate RC drilling grant up to $100k applied to extend to May 2026.
Mapping indicates brittle, sinistral fault-controlled quartz breccia and crack-seal veins with Cu-Au-Bi; mineralised envelope mapped for ~3 km north of the gossan. Geological fingerprint suggests intra-cratonic Cu-Au (ICG) affinity within the broader IOCG family (Tennant Creek-style indicators noted).
Regional follow-up ~17.5 km NW returned up to 1,125 ppm Cu in rock chips; anomaly remains open in all directions.
E79 Gold CEO, Ned Summerhayes, commented:
“The recent mapping and sampling programs were successful in significantly increasing the footprint of known high-grade copper and gold mineralisation at Mountain Home.
“The mapping program, in conjunction with an independent expert, has enhanced our understanding of the Mountain Home Gossan and its surrounds, indicating a structural aspect to the mineralisation at the Mountain Home Gossan.
“Pre-drilling approvals are progressing with a key access agreement signed with the local pastoralist and the required heritage survey field work also now completed over the Mountain Home Gossan. The results of the heritage survey, and the grant of the potential heritage licence, are both expected in the current December Quarter, which will allow for initial drilling to take place in 2026 at the conclusion of the wet season.
“A large-scale co-funded gravity survey is scheduled to start in December, which will potentially map large-scale structures and prospective rock units over a 350km2 area and provide insights to discovery opportunities under cover.”
Consulting Geologist Carl Brauhart commented:
“The Mountain Home Project is in a very desirable address, with a geochemical signature and regional setting typical of Intracratonic copper-gold (ICG) systems. Notable ICG systems include Olympic Dam, Ernest Henry, Telfer and Winu, all of which lie in the hangingwall to a cratonic suture and postdate subduction tectonics by hundreds of millions of years. Although known mineralisation is quartz vein hosted, extreme Bi concentrations suggest a possible affinity with the Tennant Creek Au-Cu-Bi IOCG deposits. Clear brittle structural control mapped in the field, combined with the prospective geochemistry at the Mountain Home Gossan provide very important leads for exploring the wider Mountain Home Region.”
Project Snapshot
Location & tenure: Mountain Home Copper–Gold Project, Northern Territory (EL32470 100%; EL33886 & EL33887 under application 100%; EL4178 & EL34179 mineral rights). E79 controls ~1,366 km² across inliers of Proterozoic McArthur Basin lithologies within the Carpentaria Basin.
Work completed (Aug 2025): 24 rock-chip samples + detailed outcrop mapping over the gossan and surrounds. Assays via multi-element 4-acid digest (ICP-MS/OES) and gold by 50 g fire assay (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Location map of the Mountain Home Project with recent soil sample locations, and new target area. (source: E79)
Results & Interpretation (What’s Changed)
(Figure 3)
Footprint expanded: High-grade copper now confirmed outside the known gossan along parallel trends north and west, and to the south of prior sampling, indicating multiple conduits and a broader structural corridor.
Structural model: Field mapping (with independent expert) identifies en-echelon, sinistral brittle faults hosting Cu-Au-Bi mineralisation in quartz breccia/veins. Left-stepping jogs on regional faults are flagged as high-priority targets for focused hydrothermal flow and mineral deposition.
Scale vector: Similar brittle quartz breccias mapped ~3 km north of the gossan—supporting a larger mineral system beyond surface expressions.
Deposit style: Early geochemical/structural fingerprints are consistent with ICG/IOCG systems; the Cu-Au-Bi association draws comparison to Tennant Creek-type occurrences. (Preliminary—further work required).
Figure 3: Map of the Mountain Home gossan area with recent and past rock chip sample locations. (source: E79)
Approvals, Programs & Timeline
Access secured: Agreement signed with the local pastoralist; heritage survey fieldwork completed and approvals anticipated in Dec Q 2025.
Near-term programs:
Airborne gravity (Dec 2025): Co-funded survey (~350 km²). Aim: map major structures and prospective rock units through cover to refine drill targets. (GDC supports up to $150k).
RC drilling: GDC grant (up to $100k) under extension request to May 2026; initial drilling planned after the 2025–26 wet season (calendar 2026).
Regional Upside
A separate regional target ~17.5 km NW of Mountain Home Gossan returned up to 1,125 ppm Cu in rock chips, validating earlier soil anomalies in Cu-Zn-Pb-Au; the anomaly is open and unconstrained—follow-up warranted post-gravity and infill geochem.
About E79 Gold Mines Limited
E79’s portfolio totals ~2,401 km² (NT McArthur Basin; WA Laverton South & Murchison). On 3 Oct 2025, E79 signed a Binding HOA to acquire 90% of Cue Metals Pty Ltd (Cue Gold Project, Day Dawn Goldfield), with completion targeted late Nov 2025 (subject to shareholder approval).
Figure 4: Map of E79 Gold’s exploration projects. (source: E79)
Samso Concluding Comments
I have always liked the Mountain Home project as it is what I call "something new". The recent release on Mountain Home is the stage that goes beyond a “gossan-and-glamour” story, as it is now more about the emergence of a structure-driven narrative. Parallel trends, jogs, and a 3 km mapped envelope are the words you want to use to show before committing to drilling. As they say, surface copper grades get attention; plumbing gets value.
The Cu–Au–Bi association and brittle quartz–breccia textures point towards an ICG/IOCG family resemblance. It is still a hypothesis, but it creates a reason for taking geophysics to a tighter geochem to vector along structures. I would think that reconnaissance drilling will start to test the strongest intersections of structure and geophysics.
For the newcomers to mineral exploration, these steps are the journey of de-risking the postulations. It is good to see that land access is signed, heritage fieldwork completed, and co-funded gravity is scheduled—these are always good pragmatic steps that keep time and capital honest. If approvals land this quarter and the geophysical surveys and interpretations deliver coherent targets, first-pass drilling in 2026 can be decision-quality rather than speculative.
The near-field gossan, the parallel trends, and the open regional anomaly to the northwest create multiple shots on goal over the next 6–12 months. For investors, the signal to watch is target convergence—when structure, geophysics, and geochemistry agree. Until then, DYOR and track the data cadence, not the noise.
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